


But first, skin care.

by heartsocold



Series: Merlin Bingo Fills [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blogger AU, Body Image, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Self-Indulgent, Slice of Life, acne, skin care
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:54:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28725426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsocold/pseuds/heartsocold
Summary: Merlin and Arthur are bloggers who are introduced to the world of skin care.For the square: G2 - Blogger AU
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Merlin Bingo Fills [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2104407
Comments: 10
Kudos: 33
Collections: Merlin Bingo





	But first, skin care.

**Author's Note:**

> For the Merlin Bingo! I have no idea what a blogger actually does so I went based off what I got when I googled it.

“Hello, it’s Merlin and Arthur again but you already knew that,” Merlin says into the camera, grinning as Arthur snorts beside him. “So a lot of you have been talking about skin care recently so we figured we’d hop on the bandwagon. Is that correct? That is the phrase, isn’t it?”

Arthur shrugs, shaking his head at his boyfriend as he looks into the lens. “So unlike Merlin here, who has had perfect skin for his entire life, I’ve struggled with acne for most of my teenage years and even now. I know that a lot of you do as well so we spent the last few weeks researching skin care routines and products and listening to the advice of dermatologists as well as some other people who decided to share their skincare journey with the world. Our lovely friend Guinevere and my not so lovely sister kindly helped us go shopping for products which we are going to be testing in the video.”

“And by ‘we’ he means himself because he’s the one with the pimples, not me,” Merlin teases and Arthur shoves him. 

“Seriously, why are we dating? You’re a horrible boyfriend. Acne is terrible and you should be providing moral support right now.”

Merlin rolls his eyes. 

“Acne is not as big a deal as Arthur - or half of you lot as a matter of fact - seem to think it is. It’s completely normal and human and I promise you that no one cares about it as much as you do okay? You are all very beautiful, with or without pimples and if anyone says otherwise, tell them I said they can go fuck themselves,” He bats Arthur’s hand away from his face without even looking away from the camera. “Stop it, picking at it isn’t going to help.”

“I know but I can’t help it,” Arthur whined, forcing himself not to go back to the pimple he can feel on his cheek. Merlin rolls his eyes. In less than two minutes, Arthur’s attention is going to be drawn to something else and his hand will reach up to dig at his pimple again.

“Don’t worry. We know that skin care isn’t a one time thing so apart from what we do in this video, there will be an article posted cataloging all the products that were used, where we got them, their prices and of course, exactly how they were used. In a few weeks or so, we’ll do a follow up post, where Arthur’ll discuss the changes and whether or not he thought the products were worth the money, etcetera.” 

-

The footage cuts to a video of Merlin, Arthur, Gwen and Morgana sitting in their living room a few days before.

“Well, I spent years trying to find ways to make it go away. Everyone’s skin is different but what really helped was oil cleansers,” Gwen says.

“I’m sorry, oil?” Merlin interjects, looking wary.

“It’s not as absurd as it sounds. It helps break down the dirt and grime on your skin and cleanses it of the excess sebum which clogs your pores and it hydrates your skin at the same time.”

“Okay, so what? You just put it on and that’s that?” Arthur queries.

“Well, no. Okay so I have an entire skin care routine right? I wash my face in the morning with a cleanser that has Vitamin C because it makes me feel great and my skin feels healthy and then I use this cream that has sunscreen in it. At night, I use a soap that doesn’t have any particularly strong chemicals or whatever and then I use a toner and a night cream to sleep. Every few days, I wash my face and instead of using the toner, I massage the oil cleanser in and then when I rinse it off I use the night cream. And a few times a month, I steam my face and then use an exfoliating soap to open my pores and then I do a face mask. Recently I’ve started using acid serums but I haven’t used it long enough to establish how well it works so I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

“I didn’t realize all that went into your skin. I just assumed that people had one soap that worked for them,” Arthur confesses, slightly spooked.

Morgana scoffs. “Men.”

“Wait, you do all that too?” He asks his sister.

“Well, not all that. I don’t have issues with acne like you two do but I like the oil cleansers and face masks and obviously I use creams because hydration is important.”

“Wait, I thought that was only for people with dry skin?”

“No, of course not. Everyone should hydrate their skin.”

“Arthur, tell me you haven’t been using a soap to strip the oils off your skin and then not using a cream,” Gwen begs and Arthur purses his lips sheepishly because that’s exactly what he’s been doing.

“I thought that since I have oily skin the point is to get rid of the oils,” He defended.

“Well yes but only to an extent. When you strip your skin like that it’ll overproduce oils to make up for the lack of hydration which leads to you having oily skin and it’s a cycle.”

“So the oil cleanser is good for oily skin too then?”

“Yes, it’s amazing. Honestly, one of my favorite products.”

“We should go shopping,” Arthur informs them, pointing two fingers at his sister and her girlfriend. “You two are coming with because I have no idea where to start and I doubt Merlin does.”

Merlin agrees. “I most definitely do not.”

-

“Okay, so now that you lot have seen the background and have an idea on what we’re going to do, let’s begin,” Merlin beams excitedly.

“Okay, where do we start?” Arthur stares at the bags on the table. They’ve bought a facial steamer, a bottle of charcoal-infused oil cleanser, a variety of natural face mask ingredients, a bottle of witch hazel toner, a neutral soap, a bottle of the vitamin C infused cleanser that Gwen recommended, an exfoliating scrub, a night cream and a face cream with sunscreen.

“How about we do a steaming then a face mask to pull the gunk and then the oil cleanse?” Merlin suggests, scrolling through the notes he’s made on his phone based off the multitude of YouTube videos he’s watched and what Gwen said. 

“Yes, okay. Let’s do that.”

Arthur sets up the steamer then sits in front of it, jerking away when the first bout of steam hits his face. “Fuck, that’s hot.”

Merlin laughs loudly. “It’s steam, you idiot, obviously it wouldn’t be cold.”

“Shut up, Merlin.”

Merlin ignores him, setting a timer on his phone. “All these websites say not to steam your face for longer than five minutes.” 

Arthur keeps his eyes closed, turning his face at different angles when one spot gets too hot. “This is incredibly uncomfortable.”

“In that case, I’ll skip it,” Merlin decides, watching as Arthur’s skin turns pink as the steam latches on and condenses, leaving his face wet. 

“Can you do that? Like are you allowed to?”

“Well I mean, I don’t think you should since you’re doing this to help with your acne but I don’t have any so I think I’ll be fine.”

Once the five minutes is up, they move to the bathroom where they use the exfoliating scrub. 

“This feels nice,” Merlin says as he rubs the rough scrub into his skin.

“It’s like a gentler version of your stubble,” Arthur confesses, smirking when Merlin blushes. 

After they dry their faces, they mix the Aztec Healing Clay with apple cider vinegar in a bowl, watching as it fizzles. “Is it supposed to do that?”

“Morgana says yes,” Merlin confirms, waving his phone in front of Arthur’s face. 

“Right,” Arthur nods hesitantly before dipping the applicator brush into the paste and spreading it onto his cheek. 

“How does it feel?” Merlin asks, scrunching up his face at the scent.

“Kind of weird? It’s not painful or anything but it’s a weird sensation, I suppose,” Arthur tells him as he continues to apply the mixture to his face. Once his skin is sufficiently covered, he turns to Merlin and pastes it onto his cheek without warning, laughing when Merlin jumps away.

“Prat,” Merlin grouches, moving closer to allow Arthur to finish applying it. “You’re right, it does feel weird.”

“We’ll get used to it, I guess. How long do we have to leave it on for?” 

“Uh,” Merlin texts Morgana. “Either twenty minutes or until it dries. She also said try not to move or talk too much when it starts to dry.”

A few minutes later, they understand what she means. 

“It feels like it’s pulling at my skin,” Arthur mumbles, unable to properly open his mouth to speak.

Merlin nods rapidly. “It itches.”

Thankfully, the paste hardens quickly enough and they wash it off with water alone. 

“Okay, oil cleansers now. I think I’ll sit that one out.”

Merlin sits cross-legged on their bed and Arthur lies down on his back, resting his head in Merlin’s lap.

Merlin shakes the bottle then pumps it twice, watching as a clear oil with a black streak makes an appearance in the palm of his hand. He takes two fingers and dips it into the oil then pastes it onto Arthur’s cheek, repeating the action on his other cheek, forehead and nose. 

“Massage into skin for two minutes,” Merlin reads off the label. He starts gently rubbing Arthur’s skin, squeezing with little force at the pimples on his cheeks and near his nose. He feels the gunk come out like little balls as he continues his motions and Arthur relaxes, his eyes falling closed as his breathing slows.

“Are you falling asleep on me?” Merlin laughs fondly, watching Arthur’s lips twitch slightly as he hums. 

“This is nice,” He confesses and Merlin agrees, continuing even though he knows two minutes has passed. He waits a few more minutes before he eases Arthur’s head onto the bed as he slips off the bed. 

“Hold on,” He instructs, slipping into the bathroom. He fills the bowl they used to make the face mask with warm water, dunking a washcloth into it and taking it back into the bedroom where he resumes his previous position.

Arthur remains pliant as he wrings out the cloth and wipes the oil off his face, revealing pink skin that seemed to glow. He finishes off by applying the night cream and then he rubs it onto his own face.

“I think we should make this into a thing,” Merlin declares.

“Make what into a thing?” Arthur asks, opening one eye to squint at Merlin.

“The whole skincare thing. We can do the facemasks together like once or twice a week depending, maybe on a Sunday or something and you can do the oil cleanse every night. I googled it and it’s a great alternative instead of just using a cleanser so it’s safe to do it every day so we can make it into like an end of the day ritual or something,” Merlin voices as he strokes Arthur’s hair.

“We? Are you saying you’d want to massage oil into my face everyday?” 

Merlin shrugs. “Well, yeah. It’s relaxing. I like it.”

“I like it too,” Arthur admits softly, nuzzling his head into Merlin’s touch. 

-

“So that last bit was roughly a month ago and we did, in fact, make it into a nightly routine,” Merlin says. “So Arthur, let’s hear it then. What’s the verdict?”

Arthur purses his lips as though he’s thinking. 

“Okay, first thing’s first - the steam. You do get used to it, actually. It doesn’t feel like I’m being burnt anymore so long as you keep moving your face every so often. The exfoliating scrub feels nice but I’m not sure whether or not it makes a difference. The mask - it smells horrid but the more you use it, the more nose blind you become and the pulling sensation doesn’t hurt. I love the vitamin C infused cleanser on a morning. Cheers, Guinevere, for recommending it. It really does help wake you up and your skin feels wonderful. The creams are also great, my skin looks - I don’t want to say like it’s glowing -- but it doesn’t look dull anymore. I genuinely didn’t realize that it did until I started using them and saw the difference. What else was there? Ah yes! The toner - the first night I used it, I am ashamed to say the cotton pad did not come back clean. I really didn’t realize how much grime could still be in my pores after I use a cleanser but there it was so you should definitely use a toner. Apart from cleaning, it also has the added bonus of soothing your skin so it’s great to use before bed, for sure. Did I miss anything?”

“The oil cleanser,” Merlin supplies helpfully.

“The oil cleanser! This is, hands down, my absolute favorite. Ten out of ten, I definitely recommend it. Everything that was said about it, is true. It leaves your skin glowing - like actually glowing - and it feels very soft and smooth. I’m pretty sure it’s one of the best parts of our days-” He turns to look at Merlin who nods in agreement. “Yes, it’s very relaxing to have it massaged into your skin - whether you have someone do it for you or not - and it really does do wonders for your skin so yes, if it’s one thing you should add to your routine, it’s this.”

“Okay folks, so while that was a riveting review, I’d like to remind you that this is not guaranteed to work for everyone. We all have different skin types and what works for Arthur might not work for you. Also, even if it does help, it’s not the end of acne.”

“That’s true,” Arthur interjects. “My skin has improved recently but I still have pimples and I don’t think that’s going to stop anytime soon. So while all these products will help clear up your skin, don’t expect your acne to magically disappear completely.”

“Exactly. There’s only so much you can do. So remember, you are beautiful as you are, okay? Alright, that’s all from us! See you next time!”

**Author's Note:**

> I saw some screencaps of season 2 and noticed that Arthur had some pimples. As someone who's struggled with acne since I hit puberty, it helped to see that someone I think is absolutely gorgeous also had visible acne. I've also been on a skin care journey recently and so this fic was born. Please remember, you're gorgeous the way you are, despite all your imperfections and it's never as bad as we think it is.


End file.
